DON'T CROSS THE LINE

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:37): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for the Status of Women a question about the Don't Cross the Line domestic violence campaign.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The state government launched the Don't Cross the Line campaign in September last year, targeting domestic violence. The Ombudsman has upheld a complaint in relation to the campaign website that it carried misleading data and information. My questions are:

1. What was the evidence base for the public relations strategy undergirding the Don't Cross the Line campaign?

2. What market testing was done of the advertising campaign before it was implemented?

3. What measures has the minister put in place since the Ombudsman's inquiry to ensure that information and advertising in the campaign going forward are well focused and reliable?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (14:37): I thank the honourable member for his most important questions. Indeed, a great deal of work went into the preparation and planning of the Don't Cross the Line campaign.

I am advised that informing the development of the campaign was the VicHealth Review of Communication Components of Social Marketing/Public Education Campaigns Focusing on Violence against Women. One of the findings of the review was that campaigns to address violence against women should be accompanied by interagency partnerships and legislative changes. South Australia has indeed taken a multipronged approach to that, as I have outlined in this chamber on numerous occasions, in not only developing the Don't Cross the Line campaign but also passing legislation to better protect those experiencing domestic violence (and rape and sexual assault legislation reforms occurred prior to that as well) and developing partnerships between government agencies to ensure that communication is maintained between agencies supporting women most at risk of domestic violence, particularly through the Family Safety Framework strategy, which I have also outlined in detail in this chamber on numerous occasions.

The main target audience for the campaign is 18 to 25 year old men and women. To ensure this target audience would be engaged by the campaign and would receive messages in the way intended, the campaign's concept was tested by the market research company Square Holes, through eight focus groups of 18 to 25 year olds, which included young men from Aboriginal and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

A community education grant fund has also been established as part of the campaign. It is aimed at informing and educating the groups in the community who might necessarily receive those messages through the mainstream campaign. Those grants were aimed at translating the message into the appropriate, if you like, language for a range of different groups. The Office for Women will be evaluating the effectiveness of each of the programs funded through the grants, and the program reports will be presented to the Office for Women.

I am pleased to say that I have been advised that there have been 14,336 visits to the website since its launch on 10 September 2009. Perhaps even more importantly, the 'hide this page' function was used 1,674 times, which could be interpreted that people using that function were clearly not wanting to betray to those people around them that they were accessing the site, so there was some level of secrecy involved. I think this is a very important outcome as well in terms of reaching those people who require a high degree of discretion in the advice or assistance they might be seeking.

During the full advertising period in September there were around 330 visits per day, mainly during the evenings when the advertising was on TV, peaking at around 8pm. In October, after the advertising had finished, there was an average of 96 visits per day, still mainly in the evenings, peaking at around 10pm.

Interestingly, around 75 per cent of the visitors, I am advised, came directly to the site by typing in the website address during September. In October, once the advertising had stopped, this high rate decreased to around 60 per cent, implying that many people started to forget the exact address and used search engines or other ways of finding the site. In November, this rate dropped to about 48 per cent and it has remained stable at around 50 per cent ever since. These are very pleasing results indeed.

There have been a number of changes to the website over a period of time in terms of general upgrades to the site. I also announced in a ministerial statement changes that were made to correct errors that were on the site, and I have asked the agency to ensure that they have put in place ongoing monitoring of the site to ensure that, as new data is made available and new research results come into the public arena, we continue to update the data to ensure that it is of the highest possible integrity.

I think that in all of this, what must be kept foremost in our minds is the importance of the campaign that we are running. This is a campaign to ensure that we protect all victims of domestic violence and that we put in place strategies to try to ensure that we develop better respectful relationships, particularly between young men and women.